We were in Lorde\u2019s personal playground of pleasure and pain.<\/p>\n
Lorde’s Ultrasound Tour has already played over 40 shows internationally. Photo \/ Sam Penn<\/p>\n
Earlier tours have seen her float about with glee and joyful youth (Solar Power), cave into herself (Melodrama) or simply try and get over her stage fears (back in the Royal\u2019s days as a young 16-year-old). <\/p>\n
I loved her extremely intimate 2023 Hawke\u2019s Bay show for many reasons, including her dynamite vocal abilities and genuine sense of love, but I secretly left wanting a bit more of a gut-punch to the soul.<\/p>\n
Her Virgin (latest album)-era and show was a different beast altogether. No stone was left unturned, and all of those past eras were bottled up and stripped away in front of us in real time. It takes guts for an artist to do that, especially a Kiwi trying to keep hold of her place in a brutal American music market.<\/p>\n
The deafening roar when she came on at Spark Arena was something I\u2019ll remember for a long time. The crowd of teens, parents, millennials, and grandmas (and grandads) was fervent, a flurry of phones whipped out as she emerged from below to open with Hammer, which was quickly followed up by Royals (I could probably safely say everyone knew the words to that one).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot to catch up on,\u201d she laughs. Too right, we all wanted to know the reason behind those crazy YMCA Queen St toilet cubicle shows.<\/p>\n
Her belt came off to cheers at Buzzcut Season. Things were getting serious, and at times, pretty saucy, as expected, owing to much of the latest album covering topics like bodily truth, sexuality, and identity.<\/p>\n
It’s been 12 years since Lorde released her hit single, Royals. Photo \/ Mahmoud Alhasan<\/p>\n
GRWM (Get Ready With Me), which Lorde says she wrote in the shower after kissing someone she really liked, saw the star drench herself in water as the camera panned up and down her bare torso.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, you can sing? I assume you can dance then, right?\u201d she asked as 400 Lux got bodies twisting and turning. The pace shifted from ethereal dance to artistic brilliance at breakneck speed.<\/p>\n
There were sporadic shouts of a deep love for being back home from the singer throughout the night, but the real turning point came just as she launched into crowd-belter Liability. She knew what she wanted to say, but none of it felt rehearsed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m always particularly nervous for the Auckland show, because, well, you know why. I can\u2019t hide anything from you. You know me to my core.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis music comes from so deep inside me, it feels so intimate,\u201d she says, dropping a bombshell that she was seriously considering not making music anymore before Virgin.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up pretty fast … I had to really go back and strip it all down … I feel simultaneously older and younger than I\u2019ve ever felt.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the greatest feelings I\u2019ve experienced was singing in te reo M\u0101ori on the Sydney Opera House stage (Auckland composer Takerei Komene\u2019s Ng\u0101 Roimata o te T\u016brama with the Auckland Youth Choir). When Lorde began Oceanic Feeling in te reo, a sense of national pride hit me like a ton of bricks. How lucky are we that we can represent our \u201clittle island at the bottom of the world\u201d with such beautiful waiata, and be given the privilege to share one of our official languages on such a wide scale.<\/p>\n
Team saw the colours of the Palestinian flag light up the stage, and Green Light had everyone, including me in the seated section, go wild in a euphoric fit of fun. In a Florence and the Machine-esque twist, she even ran through the crowd for David, those lucky enough to be in the light-stream path getting a close encounter with the star. <\/p>\n
Lorde onstage at Auckland’s Spark Arena. Photo \/ Mahmoud Alhasan<\/p>\n
It was teenage anthem Ribs that was the finale on the lighting box B-stage at the back of Spark Arena, before Lorde soaked it all in, smiled, and rushed out the front door to no doubt enjoy a special late night of fun with friends and wh\u0101nau in her hometown.<\/p>\n
Credit should also go to BROCKHAMPTON alumni Kevin Abstract, whose moody, grungy set brought the house down before Lorde hit the stage. Opening acts can be hit or miss, but I\u2018d pay full price to see him if he ever came back to our shores.<\/p>\n
As I walked back to the office, feet sore and humming What Was That, I thought back to when I caught up with Lorde at the New Zealand Music Awards last year. Given one question, I asked her what she\u2019d tell any up-and-coming artist or creative.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you to the nth degree,\u201d she said. Similar words were echoed tonight.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo live the most beautiful, brilliant, alive, curious life you can live, you have no choice but to be completely yourself,\u201d she cried, the crowd latching on to every word like gospel.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the best thing I ever did, and it\u2019s the reason I\u2019m sitting in front of you. I want to say thank you for sticking with me for 12 years through all those phases, through all my wins and mistakes. I\u2019m so grateful, Auckland.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s true Kiwis can fly, and tonight, Lorde was the inspirational proof of that, and I\u2019m so glad she\u2019s flying the flag for us.<\/p>\n
Mitchell Hageman joined the Herald\u2019s entertainment and lifestyle team in 2024. He previously worked as a multimedia journalist for Hawke\u2019s Bay Today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We were in Lorde\u2019s personal playground of pleasure and pain. Lorde’s Ultrasound Tour has already played over 40…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[21045,28440,1975,22404,28447,17898,119131,16719,156,156823,2550,19338,15313,6281,83415,194,156820,156822,32586,156819,130,111,139,2551,69,21692,28257,91143,1527,762,9643,4468,208,6915,34890,102,156821],"class_list":["post-279542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-above","tag-arena","tag-at","tag-bizarre","tag-describe","tag-didnt","tag-ella","tag-emotional","tag-entertainment","tag-ethereal","tag-even","tag-expect","tag-feeling","tag-homecoming","tag-hometown","tag-kiwi","tag-lani","tag-longanticipated","tag-lorde","tag-marija","tag-more","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-night","tag-nz","tag-proud","tag-quirky","tag-raw","tag-return","tag-review","tag-spark","tag-thing","tag-tour","tag-ultrasound","tag-walk","tag-with","tag-yelichoconnor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}